My Two Blessings

  Well, this has been an interesting reading year.  According to Goodreads I completed 127 books but I know I read more than that but unfortunately lost track somewhere along the way.  The first six months I stuck to my TBR pile working my way through the books on my physical and virtual shelves.  The latter half of the year I dove into new to me authors and romance novels big time from contemporary romance to romantic suspense to multicultural romances. I also spent plenty of time enjoying comfort reads and revisiting older series written by Nora Roberts, Carrie Vaughn, Devon Monk, and Keri Arthur.   Fantasy and science fiction stories took a close second, as well as a smattering of mystery, suspense, thrillers, literary, young adult novels, and non fiction.  Discovered new authors along the way who tickled my reading funny bone such as Lucy Score with her humor and sensuality in her Knockmeout and Blue Moon series, or touched my heart such ...

  One of my neighbors wrote a book and we are all about supporting each other on our court so snapped up a copy as soon as I heard.  This is the book that spurred me to get up off my butt after becoming a couch potato due to breaking my ribs some time ago.  I'd put on weight, my blood pressure had crept up to the danger zone and I needed to do something about it.   Filled with anecdotes of his own life, Allan makes you think: "The only way that true growth occurs in your life is when you do something that you want to do. This is not unique to you, whenever anyone wants to change a belief that they have or action that they’re doing or not doing, it only becomes part of them when they genuinely want to do it." One, you want to have to do it. Two if you do it often enough it becomes a habit.  It's all about thought patterns and perspective. Why you do what you do.   "I am going to ask you to listen to your self-talk. I think self-talk is particularly...

  Welcome, folks. A few years ago, we sat down to review the long-awaited Sonic the Hedgehog movie. And now, we finally discuss the sequel, released no less than two years after the first film's debut, at a time when Sonic's popularity is soaring high once again thanks to the success of the first movie and its sequel. For those who wonder what the story is, I will give you the rundown: After the first film, Sonic is living in Green Hills with Tom and Maddie Wachowski. However, after the hedgehog's adopted family go off to Hawaii to attend the wedding of Maddie's sister Rachel and her fiancée Randall, the evil Doctor Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey) returns with a foe to be reckoned with; Knuckles the Echidna. Sonic soon meets Tails and they embark on a quest to get the Master Emerald, a great source of power, before Robotnik and Knuckles do. This movie is just as epic as the first film with more action and more Easter Eggs to the franchise's long history, making it a...

  Greetings good friends, I am back to finally review something I've been itching to do for some time. We are finally reviewing... The Water Horse (by Dick King Smith) and it's adaptation The Water Horse: Legend of The Deep (2007). Published in 1990, the book is set in 1930s Scotland and revolves around young Angus and his family finding an egg that hatches into a mythical creature known as the Water Horse. They wind up keeping the newly-hatched creature for a time, despite the mother wanting to get rid of it, and name him Crusoe, after the legendary sailor Robinson Crusoe. After the creature grows to a considerable size, they set it free in the Loch at the end of the story after it has learned to fend for itself. The book is beautifully written for it's time and tells a fantastical story about the bond between a family and a magical creature, Dick King Smith's writing is by far just as special as other writers' works. The book will not be forgotten and I happily gi...

   Greetings fans. Sorry I took so long, but I'm finally doing a review of the final two issues of the Scrapnik Island, which is very intense. So, what's the plot? Simple. Mecha Sonic, whom Sonic tried to bond with while on the island of Scrapniks, went rogue after a battle with Mecha Knuckles and captured the blue hedgehog we know and love. His plan was to take over Sonic's body and use him to leave the island. Tails and the good Scrapniks caught on to what was happening and launched a rescue mission, which went south a little as Mecha Sonic took out the Scrapnik forces and sent Tails into a trash compactor.  After that, he then initiated his plan to hijack Sonic's body with some scrapped Eggman mind tech, which then went wrong as the Scrapniks attacked (which also led to a Super Mario Bros Z/Dragon Ball reference as Mecha Sonic threatened to crush them). Sonic and Mecha battled, which led to them winding up in the Death Egg's trash incinerator. But unlike a certai...

  It's book week 8 in our 52 Books quest and this week is all about Storytellers and all those lovely books they have created for our pleasure: narratives, myths, memoirs, drama, poetry as well as the world of fiction. From the classics to the contemporary writers of today there is a wide variety to choose from. Growing up, my brother was the one who told the most magnificent stories, whether he was retelling a Monty Python skit, relating an event that happened, or telling us about a book he’d read. We would hang on his words, groaning or laughing as he told a tale, astonished by the details, even if he’d only read or heard something once. I was never great at oral storytelling, maybe because it was difficult to get an word in edgewise with my large talkative family.  Today, the role has been taken over by my husband and son, both who have Eidetic memories,  remembering everything that’s ever happened in their lives. Which can be great, unless it’s something stupid you wi...

  I t's book week 7 in our 52 Books Quest and this week is all about Pablo Neruda.  As I was meandering about the internet I came across  Meanderings and Muses  (Don’t you love that name) Odes to Common things. And wouldn’t you just know it, I fell down a rabbit hole.  Found The Examined Life’s article on  Pablo Neruda’s Sublime Poetic Wonder at Meaning and Utility in Everyday Things .   Then stumbled upon Interludes where his poetry inspired  The   Music of Poetry – Pablo Neruda: Odes to Common Things .   Yes, he even penned An   Ode to a Book , but I liked his Common Things better. I finished Amari and the Night Brothers which was a wonderful middle grade story in which I kept forgetting Amari was only 12 years old. She was mature for her age, continually bullied and not believed because of the type of magic she had. But she was bound and determined to find her brother who’d disappeared under mysterious circums...

  It's book week six in our 52 Books Quest and this week's subject is Sleuths, continuing with our Agatha Christie theme.  I'm currently reading three books right now.  My sleuth is a twelve year who wants to help her brother in the children’s fantasy Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston which is quite good “Amari Peters has never stopped believing her missing brother, Quinton, is alive. Not even when the police told her otherwise, or when she got in trouble for standing up to bullies who said he was gone for good. So when she finds a ticking briefcase in his closet, containing a nomination for a summer tryout at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she’s certain the secretive organization holds the key to locating Quinton—if only she can wrap her head around the idea of magicians, fairies, aliens, and other supernatural creatures all being real. Now she must compete for a spot against kids who’ve known about magic their whole lives. No matter how hard she tries, ...

  January has been an interesting reading month with an interesting assortment of books from magical realism to steampunk, to romance, to urban fantasy, to historical fiction, plus two non fiction writing books for a total of 4519 pages  which on average is 150 pages a day.   1Q84 was a chunky read at 935 pages and took me most of the month to finish.  Write for Life was the shortest but was meant to be read in six weeks. However, I just kept reading because I was ready to implement her suggestions rather than wait.  I managed to clear 5 dusty physical books and 1 dusty ebook from my shelves and discovered six new to me authors.     After Dark - Haruki Murakami , (Magical Realism, Japan, 256) “Time moves in it special way in the middle of the night.” You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty -  Akwaeke Emezi,(Romance, e) “For a moment, there was the scream of tires and the mad chime of broken glass, the soft petals of white lilies, and ...

  It's book week 5 in our 52 books quest and the author of the month is Agatha Christie. I've been bouncing around the list, instead of reading chronologically, and currently have Why didn't they ask Evans? , Mystery of the Blue Train , and Sad Cypress in my reading stacks.  Read Agatha Christie 2023 Motive and Methods  February's readalong challenge is Partners in Crime, from one of her Tommy and Tuppence short story collections.   Which I don't have in my stacks and will have to wait until my buying ban is over. :( The Royal Reading Room recently covered Agatha Christie during their Christmas Interlude which including a video discussion between Vaseem Khan, Dreda Say Mitchell, Robert Thorogood, and James Prichard on the Legacy and Life of Agatha Christie which was quite interesting.  I finally completed George Saunders A Swim in the Pond in the Rain which has been sitting on my shelves for quite a while. I finally applied myself and got into it.  Sa...

It's been exactly 10 years since I first read Haruki Murakami's 1Q84.  I remember loving it then. Now, I don't remember much at all. I didn't love it, but enjoyed the bizarre magical realism.  The story is about two characters who never get together until practically the end of the story.   Both characters, Tengo and Aomame are flawed, far from perfect, and find themselves in odd situations.   Aomame, stuck in a taxi on a gridlocked expressway,  climbs down the emergency escape ladder on the side of the expressway in order to get to an appointment in time.  Thus begins her journey into the surreal.  "1Q84 - That's what I'll call this new world... Q is for Question mark. A world that bears a question. Like it or not, I'm here now, in the year 1Q84.  The 1984 that I knew no longer exists.  It's 1Q84 now. The air has changed. The scene has changed. I have to adapt to this world with a question mark as soon as I can. Like an animal rele...

  Julia Cameron's Write for Life is an inspirational and useful book full of  warm and cozy essays, filled with tidbits on nature and her dog Lily, as she provides the gentle keys to writing.  I didn't take 6 weeks to read as I wanted to find out all she had to offer, sooner than later.  She begins with the beneficial reminder that morning pages are essential in letting your words flow on the page, artist dates are needed to fill the well as it empties, and walking helpful to your  health and imagination.   "Morning pages train us to take risks. They dare us to move outside our comfort zone... They are a tough love friend. They challenge us to change our size, to become larger, more daring... They urge us to be more honest, to take action where action is needed... " You aren't being negative, "You're ventilating the negative feelings, not increasing them."  And in the pages, "we face our demons, and when we do, we find we have room for new and p...

  I finished the historical fiction novel The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau, a new to me author. First sentence:  Amiability has never been counted more important in a woman's character than it is today."  "In eighteenth-century London, porcelain is the most seductive of commodities; fortunes are made and lost upon it. Kings do battle with knights and knaves for possession of the finest pieces and the secrets of their manufacture. For Genevieve Planché, an English-born descendant of Huguenot refugees, porcelain holds far less allure; she wants to be an artist, a painter of international repute, but nobody takes the idea of a female artist seriously in London. If only she could reach Venice. When Genevieve meets the charming Sir Gabriel Courtenay, he offers her an opportunity she can’t refuse; if she learns the secrets of porcelain, he will send her to Venice. But in particular, she must learn the secrets of the colour blue… The ensuing events take Genevieve deep into England’s em...

  Happy Chinese New Year! It's book week four in our 52 books quest and this week is all about the Year of the Rabbit.  “Rabbits are known to be incredibly witty, outgoing, well-spoken, creative, empathetic, thoughtful and meditative; the water element of 2023 means this year will bring even more introspection, peace and hope… It’s a season to hone into your imagination, intuition and instincts. With artistic inspiration as a focal point, the rabbit encourages you to fill your heart and soul with hobbies and crafts. Poetry, painting, making music—any activity that instills inner harmony will reign supreme.”  Stylecaster – Cam Zhang Good thing I’m in a creative mood this year. I love following rabbit trails and have been following a lot lately on Instagram with posts about books and bullet journaling and writing and books, books, and more books, and a little bit of self help thrown in, along with a smattering of celebrities. Which brings me to the point of this post – we’r...

  Happy Sunday! It's book week three in our 52 books quest and this week's mission is to read something with Blue on the cover or in the Title.  This past week I finished Black Orchid Blues which was icky, and needed a brain bleach after finishing it so I reread Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn .   I can see I'll probably end up rereading the whole Kitty Norville series this year, now that I've finished the first.  I rarely give up on books once I start them, but unfortunately had to give up on Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun .  The first chapter was cringe worthy, then it got more confusing from there. There is a character who is referenced as xe or xir or iktan interchangeably, within the same sentence, within the same paragraph, within the dialog,  which not only confused the heck out of me, but was annoying as well. I couldn't follow the discussion because it kept throwing me out of the story. The rest of characters are equally unfathomable....

  Kitty and the Midnight Hour is the first book in the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. I Needed a brain bleach after my last read and Vaughn's filled the bill. "Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station - and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged is a raging success, but it's Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew!" I remember I first read the series back in 2013 and enjoyed the heck out of it.  It's totally unintentional but it seems I've been going back to books I read in 2013 for some reason.  Like 1Q84, I hardly remembered a thing so it is like reading again for the first time.  Stands the test of time. I was glad to see Kitty grow out of being a submissive wolf throughout the story and stand up for herself. I'm sure I'll be revisiting the rest of the seri...

  I finished Black Orchid Blues by a new to me author, Persia Walker last night.  I think I picked it up years ago at one of the book mystery conventions so it's been on my shelves for quite a while.   I almost quit on this book twice, but each time it sucked me in a little bit more. As my son says, it was “cringe worthy”, moments of ick that I found offensive, but when you think about it, were minor compared to what the characters were going through. There were quite a few twists and turns, dumb decisions, and unexpected moments. Nor was there exactly a happy ending. More like a ‘maybe I’ll try a little bit more.’ Another book tuber made a comment the other day – Did I feel things? Yes, I felt things and found myself distancing myself emotionally from the characters and the action. It was unsettling and I really didn’t want to invest in the story, but I did. Am I glad I read the story? I don’t know.  I think I’m still processing. But when all is said and done, ...

I'm letting my mood dictate what I read this year and have been dipping my toes into multiple books, this week working through Mount TBR.   Yesterday I had an epiphany while making breakfast.   I'd just finished Ivan Turgenov's  The Singers in A Swim in the Pond in the Rain: in which four Russians give a Master Class in Reading, Writing and life  by George Saunders.  In The Singers, the author goes into long digressions about the town, the people, etc.  right in the middle of the story.  Saunders points out that if you try to cut out any of the story, it fails as a whole. The digressions, the descriptions are important in bringing the characters to life. In making the reader care about the character and the events.   So... I'm in the midst of reading 1Q84 (my Eastern book) by Haruki Murakami and he too goes into long digressions, flashbacks in which he goes into detail about the characters past, before coming back to the present....

  "So young man, what do you lack?"  is the question that started Owen on his hero's quest.  Little did he know the Anarchist and the Watchmaker had both set their sites on him and would try to influence every decision he made from there on out. But little did they realize Owen had a mind of his own and dreams that would take him on a odyssey of exploration until he found his place.  "What do I lack? What an annoying, ridiculous question! He bit back his answer, keeping the words to himself. He muttered in a low voice for his ears alone, since no one would understand anyway. “I lack freedom. All these people lack freedom. If a man has a perfect life but cannot make his own choices, then what good is that life?” Oh, they had their clothes and their comforts, their families, their pocketwatches and cheap gold, their smiles and their diamonds. But above all that, he would choose free will. They didn’t even know what it was." Clockwork Angels is an intriguing steamp...

You made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi is more than just a romance.  The story was recommended by Shana at SBTB. There were so many layers to this story. It's about loss and grief, sexual attraction, choices, and love, sorrow and learning to live again. After the loss of her husband, Feyi is trying to figure out if she can ever love again. She plunges into the dating waters full steam ahead, trying to figure out who and what she wants. She's a woman exploring the sexual waters and falling in love with someone she didn't expect. The beginning of the story fooled me when it went full boil with a sexual escapade, but I gave it a chance. It simmered down and the more I learned more about Feyi, the deeper I became invested in her story. It was crude, it was raw. It was full of angst, full of sorrow. Full of choices, and full of love.  “It was like a fork in the road has closed, shut off by an avalanche of grief, choked with rocks and a broke...

  After Dark by Haruki Murakami is an intriguing story that takes place in one night between the hours of midnight and dawn.  First sentence: Eyes mark the shape of the city.  All the staples of Murakami's stories are including: the cat, the crow, the cafe, the tea, the characters awake all night, existential conversations, characters running away, the unknown, the fear of discovery. The nameless narrator - the 'we' takes the reader on a journey, through the dark hours of the night, using a wide angled camera shot which narrows down to each character and their viewpoint. A diverse cast of good and bad. One night. Unresolved stories. Or are they? Conversations through the night, afraid to sleep while another sleeps and is taken through to mystical portal. How much is a dream? How much is real?  "Nineteen-year-old Mari is waiting out the night in an anonymous Denny’s when she meets a young man who insists he knows her older sister, thus setting her on an odyssey throug...